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At the benefit on January 14th, we’ll be auctioning off some one-of-a-kind items and opportunities. As soon as they are donated, you’ll read about them here. Your chance to bid will be January 14, 2012. We’ll also set aside some items with a “buy it now” price so you can guarantee you’re going home with what you want.

The Thirteenth Floor Elevators. A collection of all versions released of the 7″ single with You’re Gonna Miss Me/Tried to Hide.

Pyschedelic? Absolutely.

All Houston? Definitely.

This is your chance to scoop up all five discs for your collection. If you miss Chris Gray Day, you’re gonna miss these.

The majority of these items will be for sale. There will be a price, and you can pay it and take the item home with you.

Between five and seven items will be offered instead to the highest bidder. You’ll be able to place a bid with our auction team, back with the other merchandise in the pool room/back bar area in The Continental Club, and then hope like hell that no one else outbids you.

The auction will end at 7:30 p.m.

If you are intent on winning, you should make plans to be there in the last fifteen minutes of bidding for sure.

Some suggestions and rules for the auction:

Come by early to check out how the system works. Practice makes perfect.

Be nice and have fun. In auctions and in general.

Bids will be displayed on a white board rather than a clipboard on a table. Auction staff will take your bid. You’ll give your name and bid amount. Please watch the staff write your bid down and confirm they got it right.

There will be minimum raise amounts. There will not be maximum raise amounts. So, if the item is at $100 and the bid increment is $50, sure, you can raise by $50. But why not scare everyone else away by raising by $250 instead?

It is almost like Ebay, but since we are human and not computers, if you try to wait until the last 5 seconds of the auction to bid, and one of the bid-takers is writing someone else’s bid down, you might just miss out.

Also, please do not say to the auction staff “whatever the high bid is, just put me down for $100 more.” They can’t be your proxy bidder.

If you want a proxy bidder, that arrangement needs to be between you and your proxy. We’ll hold you accountable for the high bid should you win this way, so better make sure you trust your proxy. Better to just be present yourself.

We’ll ask all bidders to either give us a business card or jot down name/phone/email on a note card. That way, if you are the high bidder but you’re not around when the auction closes, we can track you down. (By the way, you’re really rolling the dice if you leave before the auction ends, unless you take the maximum raise approach.)

If bidding is fast and furious on any given item, we reserve the right to take that item to a purely live auction at 7:30, where a designated auction official will take bids from the participating bidders until somebody says uncle.

We also reserve the right to offer an item to the next high bidder or otherwise sell any item that is unclaimed or not paid for by January 17, 2012.

The overarching rule here is that we are doing this to raise money for Chris. We’re going to bend over backwards to make absolutely certain that the bidding is fun for everyone and that we raise a bunch of scratch. If you act like a bully, overindulge and get mean, or otherwise act in a manner which under normal circumstances would lead to you getting kicked out of a bar, well, you just might get kicked out of the bar and have your bid withdrawn.

We’ll announce soon which items are going to be offered at auction. What do you want to see on the block?

At the benefit on January 14th, we’ll be auctioning off some one-of-a-kind items and opportunities. As soon as they are donated, you’ll read about them here. Your chance to bid will be January 14, 2012. We’ll also set aside some items with a “buy it now” price so you can guarantee you’re going home with what you want.

In 2005, Neil Young released Prairie Wind, recorded in Nashville just before he underwent surgery for an aneurism. The premier live performance of the album took place a few months later at the Ryman Auditorium (which used to house the Grand Ol’ Opry), a two-night run was memorialized in a Jonathan Demme movie, Heart of Gold.

Seems only fitting that at a benefit for Chris Gray, who clearly has a very strong heart of gold, we’d have a poster from that concert, autographed by Neil himself. And not just any poster, but a poster designed by the venerable Hatch Show Print.

The internet tells us this is a rare poster, sold only by the venue in a very limited edition. We’ve only got a small image to tide us over while the original wings its way to us from a gracious supporter and Chris Gray fan in L.A. We’ll take a bigger photo of the actual poster once it arrives, but wanted to tempt you with this preview:

At the benefit on January 14th, we’ll be auctioning off some one-of-a-kind items and opportunities. As soon as they are donated, you’ll read about them here. Your chance to bid will be January 14, 2012. We’ll also set aside some items with a “buy it now” price so you can guarantee you’re going home with what you want.

While they won’t be performing at Chris Gray Day, The Judy’s definitely wanted to be on board to help Chris out with the fundraising. They’re sending over some autographed vinyl for your collecting pleasure. Check this space later this week to see photos of what they’re actually donating, but to whet your appetite, we borrowed a photo someone else posted of some of their treasured vinyl:

At the benefit on January 14th, we’ll be auctioning off some one-of-a-kind items and opportunities. As soon as they are donated, you’ll read about them here. Your chance to bid will be January 14, 2012. We’ll also set aside some items with a “buy it now” price so you can guarantee you’re going home with what you want.

When you’re talking Willie Nelson, you’re talking Texas. Willie took a few moments out of his day, just after the new year dawned, to autograph a copy of his 1975, multi-platinum album, Red Headed Stranger. We’ve even got the photo to authenticate his signature:

Are you a Willie fan? Get your wristband now and make plans to be on hand Saturday, so this album doesn’t go home with someone else and leave your blue eyes crying in the rain.

At the benefit on January 14th, we’ll be auctioning off some one-of-a-kind items and opportunities. As soon as they are donated, you’ll read about them here. Your chance to bid will be January 14, 2012. We’ll also set aside some items with a “buy it now” price so you can guarantee you’re going home with what you want.

One gracious benefactor is parting with the poster he scooped up after seeing Townes Van Zandt play at the legendary Liberty Hall in June, 1977. It was a working poster, so has a few thumbtack holes and some tape on the back, but that just adds character.

At the benefit on January 14th, we’ll be auctioning off some one-of-a-kind items and opportunities. As soon as they are donated, you’ll read about them here. Your chance to bid will be January 14, 2012.

OK, bands, you know you were already planning to do some recording. Now, here’s your chance to do it right.

Yep, that’s right. You can lay down tracks inside these storied walls:

SugarHill has entertained many stars of the music business from all over the world. Blues legend Lightnin’ Hopkins first recorded here in 1948. The 1950’s rock ‘n roll classic “Chantilly Lace” by the Big Bopper and Freddy Fender’s platinum-selling album Before The Next Teardrop Falls were both recorded here. The Rolling Stones, Johnny Winters, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Johnny Rodriguez, B.J. Thomas, Ted Nugent, Johnny “Rabbit” Bundrick (Keyboard player for The Who), Todd Rundgren, The Bubble Puppy, Selena, Janis Joplin, Roy Head, Arnett Cobb, Christopher Cross, Red Krayola, 13th Floor Elevators and Asleep at the Wheel are just a few names out of the SugarHill history book. (For more history & name-checking, visit the Sugar Hill website.)

Many thanks to the whole Sugar Hill team for all they do—as an anchor to the local music community and a conduit to some of the best music in the world.

Are you the kind of person, though, who does the minimum? You don’t strike US as that kind of person.

You’ve got options here, baby, so we encourage you to think big and give from your heart. Now isn’t the time to hunt for bargains. You can buy single wristbands at multiple price points. $40? $150? $250?

We appreciate your gift of any size, and that goes double for Chris and his family.

If you can’t make the concert, but want to make a straight cash donation, please leave a comment and we’ll get in touch to let you know how to make that happen.

At the benefit on January 14th, we’ll be auctioning off some one-of-a-kind items and opportunities. As soon as they are donated, you’ll read about them here. Your chance to bid will be January 14, 2012.

To help Chris raise funds for his medical bills, he’s donating the chance for YOU, yes YOU, to join him on a walk. Become part of the story!

Now, we’re not promising anything here, but if you’re a particularly worthy walk partner, he just might treat you to a post-walk adult beverage at one of his favorite watering holes. After all, he is something of an expert on the topic.